Chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapy is one of the most promising salvage treatments for relapsed/refractory large B-cell lymphoma (r/r LBCL), offering durable remission for about one-third of patients. However, the remaining two-thirds either fail to respond to CAR-T therapy or experience relapse, resulting in poor survival outcomes. This underscores the urgent need to explore methods to enhance the efficacy of CAR-T therapy.A recent study published by Professor Dehui Zou and Professor Wenting Zheng’s team from the Institute of Hematology & Blood Diseases Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, in the Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer (IF=10.9), titled “Combinational therapy of CAR T-cell and HDT/ASCT demonstrates impressive clinical efficacy and improved CAR T-cell behavior in relapsed refractory large B-cell lymphoma,” highlights significant advancements in this area. The study demonstrated that combining autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HDT/ASCT) with CAR-T cell therapy significantly improved the salvage success rate for r/r LBCL patients. Furthermore, this combination therapy exhibited good safety and enhanced the in vivo proliferation and differentiation of CAR-T cells while reducing their exhaustion levels.
